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We hadn't been to our home resort in some time. As it was highly recommended for Christmas that's where we stayed in December. Our room was wonderful,..clean and fully stocked. I especially loved the location, 5517 right around the bend from the elevator..The decor was beautiful, rustic yet festive! The decorations were above and beyond our expectaions. We will be going back soon and frequently!

We stayed in a first floor one bedroom and we were quite pleased with it! We loved the atmosphere of the entire resort, but especially the villas. The villas lobby is quiet and cozy. We thought our room was spacious and pretty clean. We liked being on the first floor and having access to two small patios (one out each room). We definitely will stay there again!

We are DVC members and generally break up our stay to start in a studio and then switch to a 1 bedroom about 2/3rds through our trip. The best part about the WL Villas is that you use all the same lobby/check-in and facilities as the core hotel plus you have the health club and the quiet pool located conveniently at the Villas. So while separate from the main hotel, you really feel like you're just in an exclusive area.
The Villas lobby is about 3 stories high and has rocking chairs and a fireplace. The Iron Spike room just off to the right. This room has oversized rocking leather chairs (apparently this was Walt's favorite type of "thinking" chair) and all sorts of railroad memorabilia including an actual train car from Walt's set. The room also has games like checkers etc. These are great spots to relax and plan the rest of your stay.
The studios are generously sized and have sinks/refrigerators while the 1 bedrooms have washer/dryers and jacuzzi tubs along with a full size kitchen. The beds are very soft and the room theming perfectly compliments the Lodge.
There is a 1 mile walking trail through the woods which takes you to Fort Wilderness for easy access to a petting zoo and/or the hoop-de-doo review. You are likely to see some wild life such as deer, ducks etc along the trail. You can also rent speedboats and bicycles from this resort. There is also a daycare center for kids over 4 and also an arcade and large gift shop. Walking around the facilities, there are bear and deer tracks etc. built into the pavement for added ambiance. Music comes from hidden speakers and at night, there are flickering lights and crickets chirping a la DL Blue Bayou. Even outside of going to the parks, this resort is really a destination in itself and is easily our favorite resort at WDW.

· Ease of Disney Park Access: The bus is actually the fastest way to the MK, but the boat is a lot of fun and adds to the memories/experiences of the stay. You can also get a boat to the Contemporary and hop right on the monorail to Epcot or other monorail resorts. The bus stops are right in between the main hotel and the villas. Sometimes the boat to the MK will stop at Fort Wilderness first but WL is always the first stop coming back from MK. Both buses and boats seem to come about every 10-20 minutes. It takes about 30-45 minutes to get to the Animal Kingdom which is the longest ride.

· General Restaurant/Lounge Impressions: This hotel is one of the nicer dining options outside of the Grand Floridian - this hotel features High/Middle/Low cost dining. Artist point is probably one of the best restaurants on WDW property, Whispering Canyon has great food and is a lot of fun for the kids and Roaring Fork has a nice selection of quick items and is conveniently located close to the main pool.

· Pool Description/Comments:
The main pool has a water slide and there is also a kiddie pool and 2 hot tubs. There is also a walk-up bar right by the pool and close to the geyser which erupts every hour or so. The Villas quiet pool also has a hot tub and is a favorite for adults, although kids can play there also without gettting dirty looks.

I have just returned from a 5 night stay at VWL in a 1 bdrm (rm 3536). This was my first stay in the DVC property. My traveling party was myself, DH, DS3, DD1 and my Mom. We stayed in the 1 bdrm villa with DH & I in the king bed, DS on a twin airbed near the foot of the bed and DD in a pack & play in the walk in closet while my Mom took the sleeper sofa. As far as spacing, the 1 bedroom was great! While it would have been heavenly to have the kids in their own room, there is no way we could justify that expense. However, what way we had the kids situated in the bedroom was as close to perfect as we could get.
The theming of the Lodge was fantastic and the Villas are a great compliment to it. The grounds were incredibly serene; each time we got off the bus, I could feel myself exhale and relax. I loved that the building of the villas is compact versus multiple spread out buildings. It is so fast to get to the buses, literally just down the walkway from the villas and a very short walk to the boat. We really enjoyed taking the boats to MK and chose them over the buses. There are 2 types of boats that service WL, a smaller "tinder" boat and a larger "yacht" like boat. The smaller boat has a step down into it and can not accommodate a ECV (my In-laws stayed in a studio, 2531 and FIL used an ECV) and strollers must be folded. The larger boats allow strollers to roll right on a definite plus with a sleeping baby. I found they alternate the boats well.

It was so wonderful to have a kitchen with the kids. Not only to have a fridge and freezer, but actually plates and knifes and a Highchair. I can't imagine holding my DD on my lap on a bed to feed her breakfast. We made eggos, english muffins or cereal & milk for breakfast every day. We ate lunch and dinner in the parks, but had snacks when we came back for naps.
Transportation was very efficient and we never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus or boat from WL.

There are mostly floor or table lamps in the villas; with the deep evergreen and burgundy fabrics in the villas the lighting can seem a bit dim. It's not a problem in the day when you can open the curtains, but in a thunderstorm it left me wanting to turn on all the lights.
The bed linens were a bit hard, but the upholstery seems in good condition. The bed seemed lumpy to me, but I selt hard after a long day at the parks. Mousekeeping was excellent (we were regular "hotel guests" and got mousekeeping every day) to the point of loading all our dishes in the dishwasher and running it! That truly made the vacation!

I did get a letter under the door the day before we checked out (9/11) stating the construction would be occurring as they are renovating villa rooms.

I was hoping to be able to get a glimpse of the lake from our balcony to be able to view the Electric Water Parade, but could only see trees!

We ate at Whispering Canyon Cafe on the day we checked out and enjoyed the food. I thought it would be a fun place to go, but honestly I was too tired to deal with any non-sense. Roaring Forks had incredible deli sandwiches, but the kids hamburger was dry. You can get peanut butter and jelly here for PB&J's in your room!

Overall, we loved the Villas of Wilderness Lodge and would recommend it!

We stayed in a 1BR from October 5-10, 2008. This is our home resort and I never get tired of it after 8 years. It is the smallest of the DVCs and I feel the best because of it. The villas share the same check in lobby with the hotel which makes it really feel like it's all one big place rather than an "add-on DVC". The bus stop is located in between the villas and the main lobby so when you are dropped off, its easy to go to either place without too far of a walk. The mini-lobby for the Villas is like an attraction it itself with it's own fireplace, the Iron Spike/Carolwood Pacific Lounge with an actual train car from Walt's backyard. Also the health club "Sturdy Branches" is located in the Villas.
This is also one of the few hotels that you can take a boat to go directly to another hotel, in this case it's the Contemporary, so for a short and pleasant boat ride, you also get the amenities and restaurants of the Contemporary along with the Monorail line for Epcot in case you don't want to take the bus.
This hotel also has 3 places to eat, 1 counter service at Roaring Fork, a mid-tier table service at Whispering Canyon and top tier dining at Artist Point. So that along with room service, there is always a good food option.
This hotel also boasts a Marina for renting watercraft as well as bikes etc..
There is also a walking/bike path about a mile long that leads to Fort Wilderness where you can take advantage of the amenties there including a petting zoo and the Hoop de do Revue if you so wish.
So this resort is really close to the Magic Kingdom but seems far away and relaxed. At the same time, you can easily enjoy the Contemporary or Ft. Wilderness.. Each trip I always wish I planned to spend more time at the resort than in the parks... this is an awesome place to stay. 10/10

We stayed here 6 nights Oct. 4 - 10, 2008. My son and nephew (10 and 11 yr olds) loved the trains in the lobby, pool, and easy boat ride to Magic Kingdom, Contemporary for California Grill, and Fort Wilderness for Chip & Dale Bonfire Sing a Long. The one bedroom was awesome and plenty of room. My wife and I loved walking down to the beach at night to see the fireworks and water electric parade. This truly is a great place to stay. The only negative was the front desk check in, not friendly at all! I asked to be the flag family because the kids earned the Disney trip for all A's in school and she didn't even put the request in the computer. Other Disney resorts have special things for the kids like coloring books and crayons and lots of vacation club info like at Saratoga Springs, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Beach Club. Not here!!!! If you have kids, definitely have dinner at Whispering Canyon. It is fun and the food is great. Get the bottomless milk shakes for them!

This time we were on a 3rd floor suit near the elevator, and that worked out fine for my older mother and my little dd's. I love the boat service to MK, can't beat not having to fold up the stroller for families with kids!
The resort feels like you're somewhere so much more relaxing than Disney World, which is nice at the end of a long day in the parks. The pools are okay; the main one has a decent slide, hot tubs and a cute kid pool, but there's a divide in the middle where you can't really keep an eye on older children who can swim away.
The dvc pool has a couple of whirpools making it more amusing than a just plain pool, but nothing exciting.
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The dining is diverse: Artist's Point is great but pricey. Whispering Canyon is fine, but my experiences have been totally dependent on getting a good server: bad server means a bad experience cause the food is only ok. And Roaring forks is adequate; breakfast is fine but there's not enough room inside and the birds are too friendly outside (swiped a pancake from dd). Lunch and dinner are sort of boring, especially after a few days of eating sandwiches. I wish they had more options than pasta salad drenched in dressing as a side.

Overall, this is one of my favorite resorts because it's just wonderful to stay in with little children!

We rented a 1 BR at VWL November 2014, the week before Thanksgiving, for my mother (71), 2 sons (3&5) and myself. I slept in the king bed with the kids, my mom took the pull-out couch. We had Garden Grocer deliver food before arrival and were pleased with the well-stocked kitchen.
Overall layout was very spacious but a little strange (I kept wandering into the spacious walk-in closet looking for a toilet...) and the kids loved the huge soaker tub. The balcony was sheltered such that I could sit out with a book in the pouring rain while the kids watched a movie.

The main pool was closed and I was terrified this would make the quiet pool crazy and ruin our experience, but in fact the quiet pool was another beautiful, peaceful oasis, just like the Villas building itself. In fact, I would say that the serenity of the whole VWL experience is what made the trip - after the chaos of the parks or main building, the quiet atrium of the Villas building with rocking chairs, beautiful decorations, muted lighting, and that incredible piney smell made this an absolute haven.

Other nice touches: elevators were lightening-fast, watching the fireworks from the boat to MK late in the evening, and the placement of the bus stop so close to the villas building were all wonderful. (I've heard some complaints about bus service, but we used rental car for almost everything except MK, and parking wasn't too bad.)